On Feb 1, 8:30 pm, "Unrevealed Source"
wrote:
You're mostly correct, but it's not quite that simple.

Say you've got a radio for sale and you set a reasonable reserve to protect
your investment. In other words, below a certain price you're willing to
keep it and try again another day. Let's say that reserve is $200, and
let's also say that it's worth that, maybe more (your reserve is
reasonable).

For whatever reason (time of year, other listings of the same radio running
concurrently, whatever) interest is lower than expected and no one has yet
met your reserve. I come along and snipe it, and as the high bidder at $190
I have "won" the radio.

You have not won the auction nor the radio. If you did not meet the
reserve price you won nothing other than a gold star for your effort.

However, I haven't met your reserve so no
transaction takes place. Everyone's time is wasted.

You did not have sufficient interest in the radio to put in a winning
bid. If you wanted the radio you should have bid the maximum you
would pay and let the proxy system take care of incremental bids for
you. If you feel that placing bids is a waste of your time then you
should find some other form of entertainment.

Maybe the simplicity of proxy bidding makes it difficult to
understand. Lets say you see a Sony CRF320 with an undisclosed
reserve and you would pay no more than $200.00 Simply enter $200.00.
If you are the first bidder and your bid exceeds the reserve your bid
will be taken to the reserve and will not be increased until someone
else comes along with a higher bid. If the reserve is higher than
your bid then your bid will be no more than the minimum amount or your
maximmum bid depending on whhat other bidders do. Proxy bidding is
nothing more than an efficient way to make incremental bids.

For proxy bidding to work the buyer has to know what an item is worth
and what he is willing to pay for it.



BUT, if I email you and ask "What's your reserve" and you tell me, I would
probably bump my bid to $200 just to guarantee that if I am the high bidder
that I will actually get it. Why wouldn't you tell me your reserve? It's
kind of self-defeating to keep it a secret.

There is nothing self defeating about a seller placing a reserve. The
seller is simply protecting his interests under the Ebay rules. And he
knows if he starts out with a low opening bid and a reserve it will
atttract a lot more bidding attention and possibly entice someone to
spend more than they would otherwise because they catch auction
fever. Proxy bidding allows the bidder to place one bid and not get
caught up in key pounding rounds of last minute sniping that will
likely result in someone paying more than they should.

If you as a potential buyer don't like bidding on reserve auctions
then I suggest that you look for ones where there is no reserve.


"Roadie" wrote in message

oups.com...



On Jan 31, 9:21 pm, "Unrevealed Source"
wrote:
I think it's fair to say that most people here are fairly savvy when it
comes to eBay buying/selling, so let me throw out this question: What is
the value of keeping a reserve price secret?

When there's a radio I'm interested in that has a reserve, I always ask
the
seller what that reserve is. That way I know whether or not I'd be
wasting
my time watching it, and it may make a difference in how much I bid. So
if,
for example, you see a $400-450 radio but the guy says his reserve is
$800,
you don't waste your time. And likewise if he says his reserve is $425,
you
might bid the $425 even if $375 would make you the high bidder, so that
you
actually get the item instead of "Reserve not met" being the result. If
you know the reserve you can make the decision.

However, many sellers reply that they don't reveal their reserve.
What's
the point? Isn't the reserve just another way of saying "This item is up
for auction to the highest bidder, but here is the least I'll take for
it"?
What am I missing?

Jeff

Who cares what the reserve is - it is irrelevant to what you should
bid. You should know the value of the radio and what you maximum
price is. If you are interested in the item just bid your maximum and
get on with life. The proxy bidding system will bid yours and
everyone elses bid up. And I guaranteee you that the the person who
wants the radio the most will win because they will be the high
bidder.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -